Who said it On this day

“We pulled it off!” - Peter Berdowski, chief executive of Boskalis, the salvage firm that extracted the colossal container ship Ever Given, which halted global trade when it became stuck in the Suez Canal.

“If we’re told to stop it, we’ll stop. We’re not trying to get arrested. We’ve committed to clean the site and totally restore it. But we’re hopeful that, with support from the council and other quarters, it will become an official and more permanent memorial site” - Matt Fowler, co-founder of Covid-19 Bereaved Families For Justice, which is creating a mural made up of almost 150,000 handdrawn hearts in central London to remember the victims of the coronavirus crisis.

“For the average person walking down the road, being seen as androgynous is not easy. There’s just not been that many people out and proud as non-binary. The tide, however, is turning and gender constructs are becoming more fluid, thus encouraging people to feel freer”

- Drag Race star Bimini Bon Boulash, the stage name of Tommy Hibbitts, who has been signed to global modelling agency Next Models.

“Both my kids have worked there over the years but then, after 10 months of sitting around doing absolutely nothing because I can’t do my regular job, I got drafted in to help out because we lost two-thirds of our staff as they had to quarantine. So I stepped in and it was really good for my mental health to get out of the house and talk to people” DJ Fatboy Slim who has been working in his community cafe the Big Beach Cafe in Hove during lockdown. 1842: Ether was used as an anaesthetic for the first time, by American surgeon Dr Crawford Long.

1853: Artist Vincent van Gogh, who painted Sunflowers, was born in the Dutch village of Groot-Zundert.

1856: The Crimean War ended with the Treaty of Paris.

1867: Alaska was bought by America from Russia for 7.2 million dollars – less than two cents an acre.

1964: The seaside resort of Clacton was the scene of pitched battles by gangs of mods and rockers.

1972: The Northern Ireland (Temporary Provisions) Act came into force decreeing direct rule from London and prompting the resignation of prime minister of Northern Ireland Brian Faulkner.

1979: The people of Iran voted overwhelmingly in favour of establishing an Islamic Republic in a two-day referendum.

1981: US president Ronald Reagan was wounded in an assassination bid outside Washington’s Hilton Hotel.

1986: James Cagney, American tough-guy actor, died at the age of 86.

1987: Sunflowers by Vincent van Gogh was sold at auction by Christie’s for £24.75 million.

2002: The Queen Mother died peacefully in her sleep at Buckingham Palace at the age of 101.

ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: A painting by Dutch master Vincent van Gogh was stolen in an overnight raid on a museum in Laren, the Netherlands, that was closed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, police and the museum said.

The iconic Sunflowers by Vincent van Gogh.